82L Bodywork & Slow Build

[myride]

Excellent work. Quite a hardcore restoration.

The feeling of accomplishment at the end of a job like this must be tremendous.

Thanks for taking the time to share. And again great job... soo informative...

[Swordfish]

I'm thoroughly enjoying following your progress on this project. I'm not a body guy in any respect, but this thread has definitely started my wheels turning as to my own CS. I can't WAIT to see this thing when it's completely finished.

Kudos on your excellent work, Seamus!

[SupraFiend]

Thanks!

Work has recommenced on this old girl! Though it may be a little slow at first, dealing with some neck problems right now.

I still have one more update to post to make things current, I'll try and get that up soon.

[86mkII]

Wow, that is truly incredible craftsmanship! How many hours do you think youve put into this? Keep up on the good work, hope to see some updates soon!

[SupraFiend]

I'd have to add it up, its alot.

Yeah I'm still behind on updates. Now that fall is here I should have more time.

[CLToy]

Wow, just amazing! As I read and enjoy each chapter I not only look on with awe at the repair, but with fear of the severity of what is brewing within my own MK2s. I wish I had these skills. I am looking forward to your finished product and possible 'simple' options for the owner without your bodywork skills.

I have not always responded with each update, but I wanted to say thank you for all of your knowlege, updates, and contribution to the cs.com community. I look forward in more updates.

Chadrick

[SupraFiend]

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it!

Once this restoration and the one to my 86 SDR DD are complete, I plan to put together a thread with the latest versions of my techniques for all the common repair areas on these cars (this particalur build is WAY over that), and each section will highlight the sealer and prep work that can be done to a car that hasn't started to rust in that area yet. You can get most of that from my posts so far by skipping to the end of the update and seeing how and where I've applied sealer and paint. There are 2 other resto threads somewhat on the go of other cars I've restored, both better representitives of a restoration to an average Supra.

See http://www.celicasupra.com/forums/sh...1;-Restoration &
http://www.celicasupra.com/forums/sh...canadian+ptype

[SupraFiend]

Alright, time to catch up on some updates here. This project is currently on hold while I finish off DeanFun’s 85 SDR Ptype (see http://www.celicasupra.com/forums/sh...n-85P-restore)), but this thread is still quite out of date so lets try and get it current.

When we last left off, I had covered reattaching the quarter and rocker skins. Now I will go over the repair and installation of the parts at the base of the windshield on the DS, the panel that the door hinges bolt to, and the DS A pillar. Now it’s been quite some time since the update that covered removing these pieces and the rust that lay underneath, so if you want a quick refresher, it was all done in this update from many, many pages back (and a little in the one after it)…

http://www.celicasupra.com/forums/sh...482#post719482

Basically, everything was removed and was very rusty…




So not much here needed patch work or replacement, the rust just needed to be removed and the pieces treated and reattached. Now the main lower A pillar outer panel piece posed a new problem for me (this is after a pass with my wire wheel on my grinder)…



The panel was too big for my sand blaster booth, and there was just too much rust on it to remove via grinding and chemical treatment (a process that takes way too many passes if the rust is in fairly deep). Nope, I needed another approach. I had read about using electrolysis to remove rust a long time ago and always wanted to give it a shot. Some quick Google searches netted several how to guides. Basically, you need some donor iron electrodes, a bin big enough to fit the part, sodium bicarbonate (Arm and Hammer Washing Soda is the easiest and cheapest way to get it), some wire, clamps and a battery charger. Put it all together with the positive terminal wired to the electrodes and the negative on the part and voila, an electrolysis tank…




At least the guides I read made it sound pretty simple. What they didn’t mention is that it takes 1 to two weeks to fully remove the rust and the parts and water solution require daily cleaning. To speed up the reaction you should use as many donor electrodes as possible, and push as much current as you can through them. The reaction takes about half an hour to get going decently, and should be left going over night (the tank has to be left outside though, the chemical reaction produces hydrogen). Long before 24 hours has passed the electrodes will be covered in a slimy layer of rust…

…and the outer layer of rust on the part will have turned black so the reaction will have pretty much stopped and letting it go beyond this point won’t do anything. Everyday the part has to have the outer layer of black rust on it removed via wire brush or wire wheel and then rinsed, and the electrodes need to be wiped down and the rust wire wheeled off. Plus every 2 to 3 days the water and bicarbonate solution needs to be replaced as it gets so dirty from floating rust that the electrodes will get clogged up right away. Here’s what the part looks like after a week and a bit…





Even after all that time there will still usually be some black rust left in the deepest pits. I ended up treating this with a couple passes of Naval jelly (rust dissolver) and then more wire wheel grinding. That got the last of the rust out. Overall, using electrolysis to remove rust is a giant PITA and it takes quite a bit of time. Sandblasting is still king. I would recommend renting some time in a sandblaster booth big enough to hold your part if you ever find yourself in this situation or pay a shop to do it (my powder coater has a sandblasting room and will do it for $100 an hour for instance). The process does work and produces nice results, but it takes a lot more time and work then you’d think.

I sandblasted all of the smaller bits and treated them with my usual methods and put the main piece back together…



The inner A Pillar panel skin obviously had to be treated strictly by machine and chemical as it wasn’t going to be removed (separating it from the A Pillar is a lot of work).

And back together it goes…


Now moving up to the under fender bracing area, we have this little guy…


Now the rust here isn’t too big of a deal to clean up, but this is a prime opportunity to add some strength to one of the weaker structural areas in the front end (see the section in my Strength Analysis update on the front shock towers). In addition to this brace being a little wimpy, it is just a touch too short to bridge the gap between overlapping layers of sheet metal in this area (not visible in the photos, its obvious when you look inside these cavities with a flashlight). So I made this thicker replacement out of 12 gauge sheet…



I used the original piece as a template but lengthened it on both ends. I even duplicated the spot weld holes so I could get a really strong bond during welding. It also made lining up the piece really easy (you can see the original drilled out spot welds through the holes)…


And welded on…



And now the other pieces that I had to cut off in order to repair rust under them and be able to remove the big lower A pillar panel can be reinstalled in the reverse order they were removed…




Now while I was working on the A pillar panel, I dug a little deeper into another area that caught my attention. This had me worried on the A pillar itself…



That rust seemed to be coming from under the edging piece that the window trim clips to. So off it came…


Uh oh, not good. Better look inside the A pillar too…


Well that’s what I was afraid of, it had to come apart. What a pain…



And after a bunch of grinding and chemical treatment…



And the removed pieces all blasted and primered (as well as the bits for the A pillar panel area)…



Now you may recall from the Strength Analysis that I determined from my cross section cut of an A pillar near the top, that I had decided that they were plenty strong. They are pretty good, but from that last pic, and this one…


You can see that there is a gap between the overlapping bracing from the roof and the thick reinforcement bracing that extends from below. The rest of the pillar is quite strong and the overall shape is as well, but I figured having the pillar open was a prime opportunity to fill this gap…


I made a simple brace from 12 gauge sheet and welded it in…



You can see in that last shot that there are already several holes on the inside of the A pillar (on the side the interior trim attaches) but I added a few more so I could get the straw for my wax spray in to seal the seams after welding in the big outer piece I removed.

And all welded back together…


And all sealed up (inside and out, though I couldn’t get any inside shots)…





Sorry for the quality on those last ones, my cameras have been dying one by one over the last year or so and I just snapped those last week with an old crappy cell phone cam. Should have the good (better) one back any day. Currently this car is out of the bodyshop room and in the opposite bay of my shop, holding the interior and spare bits of Deanfun’s 85 PType as I finish it off over the next few months. To move Cam’s LType, we had to make a rig out of 2x4s bolted to the frame rails to hold the rear end up as the car isn’t ready for the rear suspension to go back in yet. Check it out, a Toyota Supra wheel barrel!



The car is so stripped down that 2 of us were able to pick it up and wheel it in and out of the shop lol.

More to follow soon. Thanks for reading!

[James112]

Glad to see this thread up to date finally. Keep up the good work.

[SupraFiend]

Thanks!

Actually its not up to date yet, there's still one more big update I need to complete and post. And theres been more work beyond that done, but I won't post an update for that till the task is totally complete. Note whats sitting in the back seat area, a new lower rad support and piece of frame rail for the front end.